Maybe I am wrong but I thought I read somewhere yesterday that Michelle O’Neill said there was a deal reached, which I would assume included some sort of ILA acceptable to SF, but the DUP couldn’t sell it to their wider party and base.

Simon Coveney said as much this morning on RTE. It's clear that Foster went back to her party and was told in no uncertain terms not to accept.

second time in 3 months this has happened to Foster. Not leadership material. Maybe Fermanagh farming chair or something

Kevin Walsh was on off the ball last night, he was on for a while but didn't really give much away. He talked about the importance of staying in Div 1 so make of that what you will. He talked a little abut Paddy Tally and how Mary's were his priority until they were out of the Sigerson so can't imagine he's spent too much time with the panel yet, from what I know about Tally I can't imagine he'd had anything to do with that kickout strategy.

He's annoyed about the criticism he's taken after the Tipp, Roscommon & kerry games in the last 2 years and deflecting from it by talking about promotion and the games against Mayo.

If KW was a student I'd give him a C. Too many flops even though there have been promotion and those Mayo wins. The team should be further ahead at his stage. Abject surrender is not acceptable. He's annoyed is he? As a Galway fan, I'm annoyed about the goalkeeping fiasco last year, the lack of a kickout strategy, the continuous selection of players out of their depth, the untimely and erroneous substitution policy, the heavy defeats in all of these (plus Donegal in 2015) games, the lack of courage against a tame Kerry side last year. Kevin needs to wake up and smell the coffee, Alan Mulholland did no worse and got lambasted for it.

Forget Brexit forget the executive.. this will always be green and orange politics... most voters are completely blinded by this and regardless of what’s happens in the world this place will remain in the dark ages

I think it's all down to how the British do things. They tend to polarise. It is either or. Never the optimal mix. Same with languages. There was English or nothing. Always the same going back to Henry 8.

NI would be better off with a federal structure. Let Orange and green run their own affairs. No need for an ILA in Orange areas. No need for parades in Green areas. Focus on potential. Not on polarisation.

NI has a very interesting cultural mix that could be leveraged but it needs a different setting.

This is the witness that has more or less stated that what she saw was consensual sex.

This the sort of throwaway comment that f**ks things up.

She said she saw sex with Jackson and, upon entering the room, didn't see anything sinister. She also said she didn't see anything that would positively confirm consent. This is NOT the same as saying she saw consensual sex.

She might have looked for a few seconds. It was her first live view of a threesome. That novelty value was what registered.

Alright so, you are dismissing her evidence because it was the novelty value that registered. Nothing else.

And you know this how?

I think her evidence on the basis of a few seconds is a thin reed on which to lean for the defence. If it was consensual why was the lady in a state in the taxi home?

I think that PJ and SO most likely had a bad dose of buidín foolish and were led by their penises and that the situation spiralled out-of control. They tried to cover it up but there are too many inconsistencies. That is my impression.

There have been many attempts to tackle assault weapons like the AR-15. When Senator Diane Feinstein, the California Democrat, tried to do that in 2013, one month after the Sandy Hook school massacre, there were 60 “no” votes that killed the effort, including those of 15 Democrats.

Among those no votes was one Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, who told Fox News on Wednesday that now wasn’t the time to talk about gun control. “I think you can always have that debate,” he said. “But if you’re gonna have that debate about this particular incident you should know the facts of that incident before you run out and prescribe some law that you claim could have prevented it.”

Senator Rubio: Save yourself the trouble. You don’t need to know the facts because the last time you heard the facts, you voted against regulating the very gun that massacred all those schoolchildren at Sandy Hook. It’s so funny how you need to be 100% sure about the impact of gun control laws when you are prepared to throw any amount of legislation and spending at the far less deadly terrorist threat to the United States.

The US has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world with 88 guns for every 100 people. But just 3% of the population owns an average of 17 guns each, with an estimated 7.7 million super-owners in possession of between eight and 140 guns apiece.

The surge of gun purchases under Obama was largely driven by sales to existing gun owners. Sales spiked on Obama’s re-election and after his calls for new laws in the wake of tragedies like the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, which claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults.

This is the witness that has more or less stated that what she saw was consensual sex.

This the sort of throwaway comment that f**ks things up.

She said she saw sex with Jackson and, upon entering the room, didn't see anything sinister. She also said she didn't see anything that would positively confirm consent. This is NOT the same as saying she saw consensual sex.

She might have looked for a few seconds. It was her first live view of a threesome. That novelty value was what registered.

It doesent matter who the leader is, Foster is apparently quite “moderate”, she has to sell whatever deal to the wider DUP base, that’s where the problem is. It’s not with one person.

They need someone to tell them that the old shite won't work any more. If it is polarised and they become a minority they wont be calling any shots. They need someone who can move the people beyond fear of the unknown..

Foster is too mediocre to be in charge now. She is a small minded unionist who isn't a patch on Terence Ó Neill. The Unionist dominance is over and they need someone who can think strategically. No no no is no longer going to fly.